ENDLESS SURVEILLANCE

Unmanned drones are revolutionizing modern warfare. The aircraft have
flown countless missions in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Yemen. By 2020 there may be as many as 30,000 surveillance drones flying
in the US, but critics argue that drones are an invasion of privacy. So
who stands to benefit from the mass production of the craft? Amie
Stepanovich, associate litigation counsel for EPIC, joins RT to help
answer this question.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE

It was hot here yesterday, a real scorcher. Hit 89 degrees which for Maine at this time of the year is hot. The humidity was high as well. Felt like Florida and I dressed like I was back in the sunshine state too. A friend told me that this spring was the hottest on record in Maine. Still the climate change deniers will say that there is nothing to worry about. We've pared ourselves down from three cars to one at the Addams-Melman House to try in a small way to reduce our carbon footprint.

I had a call from a professor friend on the west coast yesterday who can't find work. He is only 60 and is really worried about how he will be able to economically survive. I suggested that he might consider getting a housemate which would help reduce his living costs. We are just getting ready to add two more housemates at our place which will take us up to five people. The old way of everyone living in their own house needs to change. Share cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, etc and reduce your overall impact. It also makes life more affordable when you share all the costs for food and utilities. Gardening is easier the more people you get involved in pulling weeds. I acknowledge that finding the right mix of folks is very important but so far it has worked well for us.

On Friday night in Brunswick will be the next meeting of a network of folks we are calling Vital Connections. We meet every other month and have a pot luck supper together and then ask three different people to speak for 10 minutes each about their work. The idea is that we've all got to get out of our boxes by stretching our ability to connect the dots and begin to see that the progressive community will continue to be defeated on virtually every issue until we realize that we have to create a new organizing model that puts us into cooperative and collaborative situations with other people and groups that we have not traditionally worked with. The Occupy movement has helped people see this a bit better but still even Occupy has been real slow to see the importance of linking the military issue into all their other articulations. The Pentagon is obviously the enforcement arm of corporate globalization. The growing militarization of our domestic culture, and the introduction of surveillance drones, is clear evidence that the corporate power structure sees the American people as the enemy. I will be one of the three presenters on Friday night. It will be held at the Brunswick Library with the pot luck supper starting at 6:00 pm. Public is welcome. Connect the dots and survive.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

TALK NATION RADIO

29 minute radio interview of me by David Swanson on his Talk Nation show. The show is syndicated by Pacifica Network.

On his web site David wrote: Bruce Gagnon describes U.S. and NATO plans in the works to militarily surround
and threaten both Russia and China. Gagnon is co-founder and coordinator of the
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space at www.space4peace.org. He's the author of Come Together Right Now, and of a chapter in The Military Industrial
Complex at 50.

BLOG TROUBLES IN RECENT DAYS - USE MOZILLA FIREFOX

I've been hearing from some friends during the past week that they have been having trouble seeing the blog. One said he was getting weird advertising coming on the screen and another this morning said nothing was there at all.

I use Mozilla Firefox to look at the Internet and the blog was showing up fine for me. But when I went to Internet Explorer (IE) I found no copy on the blog. My photo was there, as was the Recent Posts menu on the left side, but everything else was blank.

I called my friend Dan, my "Blog Doctor", who has fixed things for me a couple of times before and asked him to check it out. The blog showed up for him on Firefox but not on IE. Then a half hour later he called me back and said it was back on IE. I checked and yes it was. Then a few minutes later it was gone again. God knows what the deal is?

My first suggestion is that everyone should be using Mozilla Firefox to surf the web because it is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web. IE is a corporate entity.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

LET IT RAP

FORMER PROF TURNS ON OBAMA

One of Obama's former professors appears to have turned against him, according to this video.

"President Obama must be defeated in the coming election," Roberto
Unger, a longtime professor at Harvard Law School who taught Obama, said
in a video posted on May 22. "He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States."

Unger said that Obama must lose the election in order for "the voice
of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life."

Well done if you can understand half of what the professor says. As the folks in Maine like to say, "Those Harvard boys are wicked smart."

KEEPING PERSPECTIVE

I took a heart stress test yesterday after a recent annual physical revealed a sketchy EKG. My doc sent me to a cardiologist who ran the tests. I seemed to do well on the treadmill (no chest pains or shortness of breath). The disconcerting part was when they shot a radioactive solution into my veins so they could test my heart function. I learn more next week when the cardiologist reviews the results with me. I glowed in the dark all night - looked like a neon street sign.

I must begin in earnest today wrapping up our next Global Network Space Alert newsletter. It's going to be more graphic and pictorial than past editions.

I had a call last night from Mark Swaney in Arkansas. We've been friends since the early 1980's in Orlando, Florida. He was working as an engineer back then at Martin Marietta (before it merged into Lockheed Martin) and called me one day to say he wanted to quit and could I help him. Having never met Mark I got right to the point and asked him if he'd like to hold a news conference and announce his resignation from the military industrial complex due to moral issues with building Patriot nuclear missiles. He said yes so I organized the news conference and he spoke out publicly. In those days the local media thought those kinds of stories were worthy of coverage - especially in a right-wing military town like Orlando. Mark eventually moved to Arkansas where he became a key leader in the Green Party. Last night he told me that the AFL-CIO endorsed him last time he ran for office. He said that the Democrats are doing nothing for the progressive community anymore in his state. Some of the constituency groups are finally waking up.

The Washington Post has an attack dog columnist that uses humor, razor blades, cynicism, and irony to beat up on his victims. His name is Dana Milbank and he went to Yale University where he was a member of the Skull & Bones Secret Society (just like the Bush family and Sen. John Kerry among other notables). In his latest piece he cuts up the left and Occupy declaring the end of the movement. Milbank's job is to mock and humiliate his targets and he does a fine job of it. The oligarchy places their operatives in all the right places and this Skull & Bones member knows his job. The oligarchy has its boot on the necks of the 99% and mocks us for being slow to push the boot away.

Monday, June 18, 2012

CORPORATE TOLL ROAD TO DIVIDE MAINE IN HALF

This crazy corporate proposal to divide Maine right in half is drawing strong opposition. The East-West highway would be a half-mile wide toll road just for heavy trucks. The environmental and cultural implications are enormous.

Many activists here in Maine say we've been a resource extraction colony (fish, timber, bottled water) for hundreds of years. The corporate colonization continues.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

EVANGELICAL MILITARY - GOD'S ARMY

A collection of clips showing military chaplains and some of the many
fundamentalist parachurch ministries that operate freely within the
military clearly stating what their real mission is. Video also shows
the mission of these chaplains and parachurch ministries being put into
practice in Afghanistan.